Passport Office workers will launch a five-week strike on Monday in the increasingly bitter civil service dispute over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at eight sites will walk out in an escalation of the long-running row.
Picket lines will be mounted outside the offices in Glasgow, Durham, Liverpool, Southport, Peterborough, London, Belfast and Newport in Wales. The union said those taking action will be supported by a strike fund.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka has written to the Government calling for urgent talks in a bid to resolve the dispute. He has accused ministers of treating its own employees differently to others in the public sector after negotiations were held with unions representing health workers and teachers.
